not surprised at all, I haven't spend a dime on this game for a long time because I do not support their decisions making. I do not buy gem items. I buy expansions and real content. I am sure many are of a similar stance.

At this point the only thing that would make me spend money besides full expansions are standalone elite specialization dlcs and and buyable raid wings if we got them at an acceptable release cadence like 2-3 months apart tops.

2) Too much visual clutter when doing large group events resulting in unengaging, boring, and mindless skill spam-fest since I can't see what the enemy is doing, or you know... even see the enemy. Too many skill effects, names of other players/minions in squad obstructing view, the enemy nameplate at the top center that can't be moved and obstructs large enemies so I don't even know what I'm targeting, etc.

3) Ridiculous aggro range of PoF enemies (900 in PoF compared to 600 everywhere else) single handedly ruins PoF for me. I hate PoF zones with a passion because of this.

4) No build templates.

It's an excellent game, but the above issues (1~3) really ruin it for me since they completely negate the good parts.

EDIT - If I use a weird analogy, it's like a very talented chef made a very delicious steak. Then, for some reason, the chef decided to pour sugar on the steak because, you know, sugar tastes good. And when people say the steak seems great, but they can't really taste it since the sugar is ruining it, AbandonNet… er, I mean, the chef just shrugs that it's annoying to fix it and has started cooking something else.

Stuff like the mount adoption licences and themed mount packs are going to inherently have diminishing returns among most players. I mean really, how many dozens of mount skins can one person need even if they want all their mounts to perfectly match their character's fashion?

@mortrialus.3062 said:
Stuff like the mount adoption licences and themed mount packs are going to inherently have diminishing returns among most players. I mean really, how many dozens of mount skins can one person need even if they want all their mounts to perfectly match their character's fashion?

For me, personally, the fact that I can't save templates of my mounts prevents me from buying multiple mount skins. I have different dyes for all my characters' mounts and I'm not going to save dozens of screenshots for my mount set ups. And since there's no way I'm going to remember my dye set ups, I'm afraid to change my mounts, hence, no reason to have more than 1 mount skin.

I was hoping for a 100-stage, repeatable, progress-savable, partyable Pyramid Gauntlet that offered unique rewards, enemy and boss battles, mechanics, and fun. Maybe even have optional stages or enemies that are on a timer or not on a timer, that have OP stats such as super high Armor, or Attack etc. Maybe even have RNG effects (similar to Fractal effects) that activate versus enemies.

Gauntlets would work well because you don't need to hit stage 100 to get rewards, you can hit certain special floors that allow you to save your progress and leave. Similar to Raiding there is a weekly reward bonus that gets reset weekly.

Lower entry level compared to Raiding (floors 1-30 are pretty easy, they get complex as you go on.) while potentially having a higher skill cap with enemies within the 90-100 floors.

@mortrialus.3062 said:
Stuff like the mount adoption licences and themed mount packs are going to inherently have diminishing returns among most players. I mean really, how many dozens of mount skins can one person need even if they want all their mounts to perfectly match their character's fashion?

For me, personally, the fact that I can't save templates of my mounts prevents me from buying multiple mount skins. I have different dyes for all my characters' mounts and I'm not going to save dozens of screenshots for my mount set ups. And since there's no way I'm going to remember my dye set ups, I'm afraid to change my mounts, hence, no reason to have more than 1 mount skin.

I have mount skins (via Gold to Gems) that after a while I just stopped using because even on an 8-core machine with a great video card and 16 MB of RAM, it just takes longer to load than the default skins for not really any better appearance.

I was hoping for a 100-stage, repeatable, progress-savable, partyable Pyramid Gauntlet that offered unique rewards, enemy and boss battles, mechanics, and fun. Maybe even have optional stages or enemies that are on a timer or not on a timer, that have OP stats such as super high Armor, or Attack etc. Maybe even have RNG effects (similar to Fractal effects) that activate versus enemies.

Gauntlets would work well because you don't need to hit stage 100 to get rewards, you can hit certain special floors that allow you to save your progress and leave. Similar to Raiding there is a weekly reward bonus that gets reset weekly.

Lower entry level compared to Raiding (floors 1-30 are pretty easy, they get complex as you go on.) while potentially having a higher skill cap with enemies within the 90-100 floors.

Fractals. You mean Fractals. That they are killing with kitten instabilities.

They killing WvW and PvP, PvE content is getting further and further apart, and rather than re-using some maps they keep making new ones that have YET ANOTHER KITTEN CURRENCY and a stale meta.

Having more fun with other games, or card games with Family (Sentinels of the Multiverse). Or even just Netflix alone with my coffee/beer (depending on time of day).

@DarcShriek.5829 said:
This has happened since the beginning of GW2. Every quarterly report brings another thread that proclaims the sky is falling. However, my stopped clock has more accuracy than these threads.

Except, people aren't claiming the sky is falling. ^^ People are just posting their own opinions on why they don't spend much money in the game.

Maybe if they focused on the mode that no other mmorpg offered, put in the resources needed and the effort to it, monetize it in a way that's not predatory, they would have a stable, loyal and probably growing number of players that would spend on and play the game for a long time.

This game used to be a sub based game didnt it? What if is was $5$10 a month to play but you could get skins/ mounts in game from boss drops, clean up some ingame Qol issues, keep the gem store as a side, but allow more to be done ingame instead of being bought. Allow wardrobe and hair to be changed ingame with ingame currency like gold or badges of some type. The big stuff like gender/race change really fancy outfits sparkle ponies and fancy tools rare minis fancy wings can still be in the gem store. Gems are here as i understand it to support the game since it dropped the sub, and thats fine, but i think if the quality of ingame play was there you wouldnt need a gem store, and people would pay a sub. Not a ridiculous sub like some games, but a decent enough one that it could work. But you have to have the content ingame to support it.

@Tiviana.2650 said:
This game used to be a sub based game didnt it? What if is was $5$10 a month to play but you could get skins/ mounts in game from boss drops, clean up some ingame Qol issues, keep the gem store as a side, but allow more to be done ingame instead of being bought. Allow wardrobe and hair to be changed ingame with ingame currency like gold or badges of some type. The big stuff like gender/race change really fancy outfits sparkle ponies and fancy tools rare minis fancy wings can still be in the gem store. Gems are here as i understand it to support the game since it dropped the sub, and thats fine, but i think if the quality of ingame play was there you wouldnt need a gem store, and people would pay a sub. Not a ridiculous sub like some games, but a decent enough one that it could work. But you have to have the content ingame to support it.

Nope. GW2 has never had a sub. Neither did GW1. GW2 was designed from the ground up to be buy-to-play and have gems as a premium currency that could be bought both with real money and gold (to even the divide between players who are able/willing to spend money and those who can't/won't). But that was about 10 years ago (as Eye of the North came out in 2007 and replaced the originally planned full Utopia expansion and work on GW2 was started around that time) and there's been some significant team and direction changes since then.

The business model of buy-to-play and having a cash store to keep revenue coming in between expansions is a perfectly fine method. The execution of it done by Arenanet is another matter. The game engine is also about 20 years old and doing things it was never designed to do, which makes it harder to respond to user trends and desires.

Has it been a year already? Always makes me wonder how few people actually read these reports in their entirety.

Numbers in billion ₩

2014 85,634

2015 100,526

2016 76,636

2017 82,824

2018 80,163

2019...

Q4 2015 37,331 Heart of Thorns

Q4 2016 14,870 Nothing

Q4 2017 34,903 Path of Fire

Q4 2018 15,699 Nothing

Q4 2019...

Turns out 2018 hasn't been that bad of a year, not at all considering it didn't have an expansion release. And 2019 might end up being their best year yet or at least close to 2015 if they keep up sales similar to 2018 with the addition of a new expansion. Why exactly are people panicing again?

Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something. ~ Robert Heinlein

So many things turn players away from spending on gems. I think the focus and loud shouts for raids and fractals are partly killing this game. There was a large poll last year and raids had something like 5% populations and fractals a little more. WvW was like 30%, pvp a small amount like 15% and open world/world bosses the biggest. No matter your preference in this game, and how small a sample size on this forum the poll covered. Consider your main population is playing modes you only update with the same stuff over and over or never update at all. While the stuff those players rarely or never touch see's updates and content locked behind it.

Then there are the nerfs. 2018 has to be one of the most garbage hatchet job nerf periods ever. Warrior is neutered for example. Just go look at the history of full counter, something that was never OP after the initial CD increase. Warrior was very popular, when you cut its arms off, many of those players won't just jump to another profession, they will jump game or protest by not spending on gems.

And above all, 2018, the worst part? Garbage gem store. It has been better since they adopted the fortnite constant offers formula, something I posted about early 2018. Loot box mounts, MASSIVELY overpriced mount skins and packs, no skin should be beyond the first gem price. Packs the second. When you place items just beyond tier 1 of gems, sometimes tier 2, that doesn't make people think "oh I will just pay more" it makes people think "get lost I am not spending that". It is a dodgy tactic more akin to EA. And one thing I think its genuinely uninspired is outfits over armour skins, this is Fashion wars 2 after all.

Small these like things turn people away from buying gems. I am one of them. I used to buy gems monthly like a sub. More recently I would farm gold for stuff, but they seem to be attacking that also. If I didn't have friends in this game I would of gone on another long break. I always feel like we are fighting against the devs rather than thanking them for content we want, story aside.

@Henry.5713 said:
Has it been a year already? Always makes me wonder how few people actually read these reports in their entirety.

Numbers in billion ₩

2014 85,634

2015 100,526

2016 76,636

2017 82,824

2018 80,163

2019...

Q4 2015 37,331 Heart of Thorns

Q4 2016 14,870 Nothing

Q4 2017 34,903 Path of Fire

Q4 2018 15,699 Nothing

Q4 2019...

Turns out 2018 hasn't been that bad of a year, not at all considering it didn't have an expansion release. And 2019 might end up being their best year yet or at least close to 2015 if they keep up sales similar to 2018 with the addition of a new expansion. Why exactly are people panicing again?

That's far more useful than a synopsis of the four fiscal quarters following the release of the last expansion, and after checking the exchange rate you really can't complain about a studio of their size selling the better part of $100M of product a year.

Given how their sales are clearly expansion-driven, you'd figure they'll be working on something else if they're not planning another expansion following the S4 finale. Six and a half years post-release, they will have figured out what draws players in GW2 and what doesn't.

@Bish.8627 said:
And above all, 2018, the worst part? Garbage gem store. It has been better since they adopted the fortnite constant offers formula, something I posted about early 2018. Loot box mounts, MASSIVELY overpriced mount skins and packs, no skin should be beyond the first gem price. Packs the second. When you place items just beyond tier 1 of gems, sometimes tier 2, that doesn't make people think "oh I will just pay more" it makes people think "get lost I am not spending that". It is a dodgy tactic more akin to EA. And one thing I think its genuinely uninspired is outfits over armour skins, this is Fashion wars 2 after all.

Pricy skins are controversial, but they work for some reason. I can kind of see why, too.

Prior to PoF, I'd spent close to nothing on the gem store because there just wasn't anything I wanted that couldn't be converted from gold easily enough - that accounted for a bare handful of outfits (I play Charr exclusively, so there's hardly anything that looks good) and some infinite harvesting tools.

After PoF, I've bought quite a number of mount skins. Some of the random-rolled ones, just as a base collection for when I don't feel like something fancy, and many of the 2000 gem ones. Why? I guess I like mounts, and I don't have any expensive hobbies so I'm happy to spend a little bit on this. Plus I like ANet's artists, and their pricing for exclusive items is actually pretty reasonable when you'd pay upwards of $100 USD for exclusive things in other MMOs and RPGs I play.

Basically, ANet is providing players that have money to burn with something to burn it on if they like. They don't expect the majority of their players to be able (or willing) to do this.

@Tiviana.2650 said:
This game used to be a sub based game didnt it? What if is was $5$10 a month to play but you could get skins/ mounts in game from boss drops, clean up some ingame Qol issues, keep the gem store as a side, but allow more to be done ingame instead of being bought. Allow wardrobe and hair to be changed ingame with ingame currency like gold or badges of some type. The big stuff like gender/race change really fancy outfits sparkle ponies and fancy tools rare minis fancy wings can still be in the gem store. Gems are here as i understand it to support the game since it dropped the sub, and thats fine, but i think if the quality of ingame play was there you wouldnt need a gem store, and people would pay a sub. Not a ridiculous sub like some games, but a decent enough one that it could work. But you have to have the content ingame to support it.

If this game goes sub I stop playing cause I cannot stand the sub model. I want to buy a game and then play it when I want, not make sure I got a sub running so I can play it.

@Henry.5713 said:
And 2019 might end up being their best year yet or at least close to 2015 if they keep up sales similar to 2018 with the addition of a new expansion.

Considering we're going to have full season 5 right after season 4, there's practically no chance we'll get an expansion in 2019. We're in february already, there's still no episode 6,. and Season 5 will take at least 18 months (probably more), so, adding some time in between s4/s5, and s5/expac, i'd say that it may not come even in 2020. So, late (very late) 2020/early 2021 at best.

The whole point of a social game is to play with the people you want to play with, not be forced to play with the people you don't.

@Henry.5713 said:
And 2019 might end up being their best year yet or at least close to 2015 if they keep up sales similar to 2018 with the addition of a new expansion.

Considering we're going to have full season 5 right after season 4, there's practically no chance we'll get an expansion in 2019. We're in february already, there's still no episode 6,. and Season 5 will take at least 18 months (probably more), so, adding some time in between s4/s5, and s5/expac, i'd say that it may not come even in 2020. So, late (very late) 2020/early 2021 at best.

You might be right there. This year seems rather unlikely if you consider the renewed focus on Living Story releases. Though, I still wouldn't complete rule out an expansion release before 2021 or even before late 2020. They have surprised us in the past.

Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something. ~ Robert Heinlein

@Henry.5713 said:
Has it been a year already? Always makes me wonder how few people actually read these reports in their entirety.

Numbers in billion ₩

2014 85,634

2015 100,526

2016 76,636

2017 82,824

2018 80,163

2019...

Q4 2015 37,331 Heart of Thorns

Q4 2016 14,870 Nothing

Q4 2017 34,903 Path of Fire

Q4 2018 15,699 Nothing

Q4 2019...

Turns out 2018 hasn't been that bad of a year, not at all considering it didn't have an expansion release. And 2019 might end up being their best year yet or at least close to 2015 if they keep up sales similar to 2018 with the addition of a new expansion. Why exactly are people panicing again?

That's the other part of the cycle: one of these reports is released and people panic that it's bad news. Doesn't matter what it actually says. Even if the profits have actually gone up it's still bad news because either it means the game is now entirely about the gem store or there's no way they'll be able to maintain it and then the next quarter will look even worse.

"You can run like a river, Till you end up in the sea,
And you run till night is black, And keep on going in your dreams,
And you know all the long while, It's the journey that you seek,
It's the miles of moving forward, With the wind beneath your wings."

@Henry.5713 said:
Has it been a year already? Always makes me wonder how few people actually read these reports in their entirety.

Numbers in billion ₩

2014 85,634

2015 100,526

2016 76,636

2017 82,824

2018 80,163

2019...

Q4 2015 37,331 Heart of Thorns

Q4 2016 14,870 Nothing

Q4 2017 34,903 Path of Fire

Q4 2018 15,699 Nothing

Q4 2019...

Turns out 2018 hasn't been that bad of a year, not at all considering it didn't have an expansion release. And 2019 might end up being their best year yet or at least close to 2015 if they keep up sales similar to 2018 with the addition of a new expansion. Why exactly are people panicing again?

Its worth considering since early 2017 or so they've been doubling down on the gemstore with more updates.

The income inst indicative of a healtier and better game which shows considering the number of ppl that have shared less than possitive outlooks on it.

2018 was one of the worst years in terms of ingame cintent updates and yet it scored close to 2017.

@Henry.5713 said:
Has it been a year already? Always makes me wonder how few people actually read these reports in their entirety.

Numbers in billion ₩

2014 85,634

2015 100,526

2016 76,636

2017 82,824

2018 80,163

2019...

Q4 2015 37,331 Heart of Thorns

Q4 2016 14,870 Nothing

Q4 2017 34,903 Path of Fire

Q4 2018 15,699 Nothing

Q4 2019...

Turns out 2018 hasn't been that bad of a year, not at all considering it didn't have an expansion release. And 2019 might end up being their best year yet or at least close to 2015 if they keep up sales similar to 2018 with the addition of a new expansion. Why exactly are people panicing again?

That's the other part of the cycle: one of these reports is released and people panic that it's bad news. Doesn't matter what it actually says. Even if the profits have actually gone up it's still bad news because either it means the game is now entirely about the gem store or there's no way they'll be able to maintain it and then the next quarter will look even worse.

Was it last q report or the one before that, which was higher than expected and ppl were actually fine, no negativity about it.

@Henry.5713 said:
And 2019 might end up being their best year yet or at least close to 2015 if they keep up sales similar to 2018 with the addition of a new expansion.

Considering we're going to have full season 5 right after season 4, there's practically no chance we'll get an expansion in 2019. We're in february already, there's still no episode 6,. and Season 5 will take at least 18 months (probably more), so, adding some time in between s4/s5, and s5/expac, i'd say that it may not come even in 2020. So, late (very late) 2020/early 2021 at best.

2021 i feel like is out of the question simply because they dont take "extra time" inbetween seasons and expansions. That was basically a big selling point of se4 and pof it self, both slotted in a lw like cadence from each other and se3 iirc.

@Tiviana.2650 said:
This game used to be a sub based game didnt it? What if is was $5$10 a month to play but you could get skins/ mounts in game from boss drops, clean up some ingame Qol issues, keep the gem store as a side, but allow more to be done ingame instead of being bought. Allow wardrobe and hair to be changed ingame with ingame currency like gold or badges of some type. The big stuff like gender/race change really fancy outfits sparkle ponies and fancy tools rare minis fancy wings can still be in the gem store. Gems are here as i understand it to support the game since it dropped the sub, and thats fine, but i think if the quality of ingame play was there you wouldnt need a gem store, and people would pay a sub. Not a ridiculous sub like some games, but a decent enough one that it could work. But you have to have the content ingame to support it.

If this game goes sub I stop playing cause I cannot stand the sub model. I want to buy a game and then play it when I want, not make sure I got a sub running so I can play it.

@Tiviana.2650 said:
This game used to be a sub based game didnt it? What if is was $5$10 a month to play but you could get skins/ mounts in game from boss drops, clean up some ingame Qol issues, keep the gem store as a side, but allow more to be done ingame instead of being bought. Allow wardrobe and hair to be changed ingame with ingame currency like gold or badges of some type. The big stuff like gender/race change really fancy outfits sparkle ponies and fancy tools rare minis fancy wings can still be in the gem store. Gems are here as i understand it to support the game since it dropped the sub, and thats fine, but i think if the quality of ingame play was there you wouldnt need a gem store, and people would pay a sub. Not a ridiculous sub like some games, but a decent enough one that it could work. But you have to have the content ingame to support it.

If this game goes sub I stop playing cause I cannot stand the sub model. I want to buy a game and then play it when I want, not make sure I got a sub running so I can play it.

That why optional subs are also a thing.

An optional sub was not in your message, although I would stop playing then too cause some things would be locked behind an optional sub.

In the gemstore today if you buy something it is yours forever, with a sub it is gone in a month unless you pay for another month.

@Henry.5713 said:
And 2019 might end up being their best year yet or at least close to 2015 if they keep up sales similar to 2018 with the addition of a new expansion.

Considering we're going to have full season 5 right after season 4, there's practically no chance we'll get an expansion in 2019. We're in february already, there's still no episode 6,. and Season 5 will take at least 18 months (probably more), so, adding some time in between s4/s5, and s5/expac, i'd say that it may not come even in 2020. So, late (very late) 2020/early 2021 at best.

It depends on what LW5 looks like. LW4 looks like LW3, but nothing looks like LW1 or LW2. It's possible they change the formula.

No Build Templates. I love switching builds and playing around but I hate not being able to save my builds so I can easily switch back to them without having to Print Screen and save countless of pictures to 'remember' these builds.
Example: I love switching between Daredevil and Deadeye, but it's annoying how I have to go through the talents and pick stuff manually all the time. Kind of ruins the fun for me.

Terrible Fractal Instabilities. I was having a blast in Fractals before these horrid instabilities got added. On top of that, some encounters are absolutely chaotic and horrible. You'll struggle avoiding things on the ground even with Daredevil, I can't imagine how it must feel playing other professions. Siren's Reef in particular has such obnoxious encounters, add Birds and Fire Spraying Instabilities and you'll get pure insanity!

AoE, Blinding Effects, Chaos! There's way too much AoE that absolutely ruins combat and any joy of actually engaging larger fights. Effects spray everywhere, there's a whole load of mess going on, making you unable to keep an eye out on what's actually going on. Way too many flashy and blinding effects. It makes my eyes sore and my head hurt.

Too Much Brightness and Bright Colors. Post Processing Off doesn't solve this issue because it makes the game look way too dark and bland. The current settings need more options to help us tweak lighting and lower it down a bit. Some zones are horrible to look at and lighting itself feels absolutely unnatural and blinding. You can't see details nor colors on your character due to lighting. Look at Desert zones, it's horrible how lighting conceals your character's details and colors, contrast is huge.

Misplaced Music, Continuous Music Playing Even After Switching Zones. Some areas have misplaced music. I was just doing Arah run and Kryta music started playing in middle of this grim, dark dungeon. It absolutely ruins the whole feel of it. Some zones really need a 'playlist' tweak so that music is in place. On top of that, music needs to stop playing when we switch zones. I hate having Divinity's Reach theme play when I move from DR to Orr or any other zone.

Way Too Light Story Tone. The story lacks depth and seriousness. Some moments can be dark but they immediately get ruined by misplaced humor and taking the situation way too light. The only difference and amazing twist happened in Episode 5 All or Nothing, for which I'll keep praising the team as it's exactly what I expected from GW story.
I hope the story goes more serious and deeper than what we had so far, I miss that GW1 atmosphere in GW2, hopefully it returns.

I love GW2, I always loved GW franchise and I really hope most of the problems that got posted in this thread get addressed. It will make the game so much better for everyone.

I do not get it like every update needs to be painful and ends up making ppl quit each time. The "black magic" that anet talked about as means of adding in something a bit painful to add more content is something they do every time now.

I mean the story is cool and all but waiting 3-4 months for just 2-3hour singleplayer update is not something I'm too excited for in MMO.

All new maps are just yet another generic open world maps, that die out so quickly unless it's top gold farm like istan.

We get like 2-3 boss easy mode fractal every 6-7months, 2-4 boss raid wing every 8-9months.

Really nothing new gets added. No side activities, no pvp/wvw updates, no life-skills or any other interesting systems, no housing or something similiar to work for long term. Feels like all the resources are focused on this single player story instances. New shinies are mostly dissapointing, everything flashy or cool just ends up gem store, which is just so boring. We have billion mount skins and not a single one is available from playing the game, just grind gold or use CC.

When I think that we are still about 2 years away from 3rd expansion (if they keep pace at 1ep/3months), I'm not too optimistic for the game.

Lots of my friends/guildies quit or are only playing for like a week after episode release and quit again. The lack of replayability and incredibly slow challanging/fun group content releases are slowly killing the game for me, I stay online less and less each week.

I love the game but I strongly disagree with direction it's going. I don't feel like supporting it with gems and I know quite a bit of people like that.

@Critical Lag.9075 said:
I mean the story is cool and all but waiting 3-4 months for just 2-3hour singleplayer update is not something I'm too excited for in MMO.

All new maps are just yet another generic open world maps, that die out so quickly unless it's top gold farm like istan.

We get like 2-3 boss easy mode fractal every 6-7months, 2-4 boss raid wing every 8-9months.

Really nothing new gets added. No side activities, no pvp/wvw updates, no life-skills or any other interesting systems, no housing or something similiar to work for long term. Feels like all the resources are focused on this single player story instances. New shinies are mostly dissapointing, everything flashy or cool just ends up gem store, which is just so boring. We have billion mount skins and not a single one is available from playing the game, just grind gold or use CC.

When I think that we are still about 2 years away from 3rd expansion (if they keep pace at 1ep/3months), I'm not too optimistic for the game.

Lots of my friends/guildies quit or are only playing for like a week after episode release and quit again. The lack of replayability and incredibly slow challanging/fun group content releases are slowly killing the game for me, I stay online less and less each week.

I love the game but I strongly disagree with direction it's going. I don't feel like supporting it with gems and I know quite a bit of people like that.

I pretty much feel the same, with addition that I think the story is strangling the pve side of it (for me). Haven't been this disappointed and detached to an rpg story in a very long time. I'm unlikely to quit, but my time in game is dwindling - especially as every person I ever played with has left for good now. There are too many rpgs with great stories out there and I'm realising playing an inferior gw2 more is to experience these better stories less.

I doubt the story can be fixed for me at this stage, but the game feels it needs something to pull it out of the slowly stagnating, visual noise infested chaos it seems to be in. PoF and mounts really rejuvenated the game, but the living world seasons are rarely doing anything for me, nor have they ever. The though of another full cycle before an expac is not palatable. And when I see something like that last poor episode dropped, it doesn't encourage me to part with money.

What sleep is here? What dreams there are in the unctuous coiling of the snakes mortal shuffling. weapon in my hand. My hand the arcing deathblow at the end of all things. The horror. The horror. I embrace it. . .

I haven’t been spending anything lately. Maybe small stuff with gold conversion. But there hasn’t really been anything extremely enticing in the gemstone and the one thing I did want was rng loot box exalted shoulders.

I rarely spend money on them now. I dont really care for cosmetic items nor do i need gold that bad. The game is truly casual and what do you expect with a model like that. If things dont get better we may have another wildstar on our hands.

@Tiviana.2650 said:
This game used to be a sub based game didnt it? What if is was $5$10 a month to play but you could get skins/ mounts in game from boss drops, clean up some ingame Qol issues, keep the gem store as a side, but allow more to be done ingame instead of being bought. Allow wardrobe and hair to be changed ingame with ingame currency like gold or badges of some type. The big stuff like gender/race change really fancy outfits sparkle ponies and fancy tools rare minis fancy wings can still be in the gem store. Gems are here as i understand it to support the game since it dropped the sub, and thats fine, but i think if the quality of ingame play was there you wouldnt need a gem store, and people would pay a sub. Not a ridiculous sub like some games, but a decent enough one that it could work. But you have to have the content ingame to support it.

If this game goes sub I stop playing cause I cannot stand the sub model. I want to buy a game and then play it when I want, not make sure I got a sub running so I can play it.

That why optional subs are also a thing.

An optional sub was not in your message, although I would stop playing then too cause some things would be locked behind an optional sub.

In the gemstore today if you buy something it is yours forever, with a sub it is gone in a month unless you pay for another month.

@mortrialus.3062 said:
Stuff like the mount adoption licences and themed mount packs are going to inherently have diminishing returns among most players. I mean really, how many dozens of mount skins can one person need even if they want all their mounts to perfectly match their character's fashion?

@mortrialus.3062 said:
Stuff like the mount adoption licences and themed mount packs are going to inherently have diminishing returns among most players. I mean really, how many dozens of mount skins can one person need even if they want all their mounts to perfectly match their character's fashion?

Y'all are missing the real concern from that graph ... the sum of all of the PC game revenue barely adds up to the mobile game revenues. If a game dev company can make an order of magnitude more bux by switching platform ... they would be crazy to not do so. Admittedly, I don't know how many games are in that 'mobile' part of the graph, but that's the biggest concern to me.

If you think balancing is only driven by performance and justified by comparisons to other classes then prepare to be educated: